I stole the thread title from some time in 2002. So I was wondering if anybody on this board had any good music suggestions. New bands, underground bands etc. I thought I would give a small list of bands from Scotland that are pretty damn good.

1. Arab Strap- A drunken Scottish guy talking about his girlfriends over a some nice guitar. A bit like Velvet Underground/Lou Reed

2. Belle and Sebastian- They've been mentioned before. However they do make good 60's style music and there new album was a return to form (Trever Horn produced)

3. Beta Band- Kind of hard to describe. Their song 'Dry the Rain' was featured on High Fidelity. Buy their '3 EPs' collection and 'Hot Shots 2', not their sub-par first album.

I'll bite with my favorite group that features an ex-roommate of mine. The band is TEOS (The Evil Operating System), and they are based in NJ but play in Philly. They recently did The Pontiac and the local Philly station's Tuesday Night Music Club (Y100 is the station) at a big bar in Manayunk, PA.

Oh, and the music is metal. Look for big things from this group and look for me to suddenly look for backstage passes if they really make it big. Whee!

(edited by Torchslasher on 23.2.04 1629)Damn you WWE for making me change my sig. I'm sure you have good enough reasons to get rid of Shannon, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Let me thus be the first to say: BRING BACK DAFFNEY!

Two of my favourite bands period are Soundfreek and Hemi Cuda. I came across Soundfreek via mp3.com (RIP) and originally discovered Hemi Cuda when they opened for GWAR.

Recently, I've been getting several excellent indy/unsigned albums in the mail thanks to a new site I'm in the process of building. Everything from an ambient band in Seattle to a folk singer from Brazil to a nu-metal band from Finland. Seeing as how I haven't even advertised the site yet other than posting about it on a small (non-music related) messageboard and mentioning it to a couple of friends who are in bands, I'm pretty hopeful that there will be a big influx of new music when the site actually goes live.

Also, for people who are always looking for new music, there's actually an unsigned artists station on XM Radio that played some really good stuff.

You wanted the best, you got... Out of Context Quote of the Week.
"EMBRACE THE PENIS! LOVE THE PENIS! THE PENIS IS YOUR BEST FRIEND! Be..... the penis." (DEAN)(snaps for Arab Strap and, especially, Idlewild)

The Sounds are probably Sweden's best Blondie imitators. Not that it's a bad thing, actually.

DEAN's Nuggets of Wisdom:

"A-Train could wear a Vampirella outfit and I would toast a load to it."

Ooooh, so many to choose from. Of the now-defunct bands, I have to go with The Dismemberment Plan (think of the weirdity of Devo, only with generally more earthy lyrics and even more irony), Dream Six (pre-name-change Concrete Blonde, and unspeakably good), Brainiac, Lazy, Radiolaria, and Ditchweed (the latter four being Cincinnati/Dayton, OH area bands, but still available elsewhere if you really look, especially Brainiac).

Of bands still around, I gotta say Guided By Voices (low-fi drinking music at its finest), Girls Against Boys (all over the place, from really menacing punk to super-sexy techno-ish), Poster Children (fun, brainy math-rockin' punk), Salaryman (Poster Children doing trippy synth music, big in Europe, totally unknown in the States), and Pretty Mighty Mighty (just really good pop... with a violin instead of lead guitar).

Honorable mention to the Flaming Lips. Still underground in my book, but I realize their having had one hit and recently appearing in an HP commercial would disqualify them in many eyes.

Big props to those who already named Pulp, Idlewild, the Beta Band ("This is really good." "I know."), and Belle and Sebastian. Had you guys not already named 'em, I'm sure I would've put at least one of those on my list.

Tsar, a fantastic pseudo-glam band out of Silverlake, CA (home of Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, etc.).

Technically, they're not indie, because they were signed to Hollywood and released an album in 2000. But Hollywood gave them ZERO promotion and the album went unheard. (Save for a tiny snippet on the 2000 MTV Movie Awards and a song on the "American Psycho 2" soundtrack.)

They have another album finished and hopefully this time they'll get some support.

(Hmmm. Their site seems to be down at the moment. Probably should have checked that before I posted the link.)

I'm gonna hit ya all from the UP tip (why am i talking like that?). Bands from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that rock or at least exist:

Da Yoopers (duh), Sah, Ursa Minor, Manray 19, Gravitar (technically Dearborn but one member was from the UP), The Muldoons, Beehive and the Baracudas (featuring members of Hot Snakes...the funny thing is Beehive isn't actually from the UP but their "gimmick" is that they are).

That's all I can think of for the moment. A suprisingly good scene exists way up there despite there not being all that many people.

Man.. Snow Patrol is so fantastic. the song "An olive grove facing the sea" just takes my heart and wrenches it. It's just one of those songs that if I'm in a mood, it can bring tears out of me so fast...

Idlewild is also fantastic. 100 broken windows is such a fantastic album

I would suggest a few bands.

My Favorite.. Sort of like The Smiths. Mope rock at it's finest. The songs with the female singer are the best. Look up the song Le Monster

Postal Service - Side project for the lead guy in Death Cab for Cutie.. Just fantastic.

Twilight Singers - Greg Dulli from the afghan whigs decides that not only does he not hate every woman, but wants to woo them into bed with him.

The Afghan Whigs - Man.. Just crushing songs about Evil men, and the things women do to drive them to evil. I was blessed to watch this band come up in Cincy.

Dead Prez- Just released what I would consider the greatest rap album of all time. PUblic enemy for the new century.

I could do on forever. But these will do. If you want music by any of these bands. Hit me up on Yahoo as Crowdkillingjoke or on AIM as "ChrisHuckeby". I'll send the music around

I don't know if this would count as indie/unsigned since they did have a major record label and then decided themselves to leave it. Caroline's Spine out of Salt Lake City is a great rock band. One of my faves--and no one ever seems to know about them when I mention it. The only reason I "found" them was because WJJO in Mad-town, WI is a great station that plays lesser known and local rock groups.

Another more recent "find" is Lennon (Murphy). I love rock bands with female leads. Caught her first on Music Choice, but she's not mainstream by any means. Kind of has an Evanescence sound, but maybe a bit harder.

Just my $0.02.

And with all the Bright Eyes love floating around, I'm going to have to check them out.

[edit: helped if I got her last name right]

(edited by Submit2theXFace on 27.2.04 1356)Courtesy of True/False on wwe.comStatement #2: You watched the finale of "Sex and the City."

Heyman: True. Because it only whet my appetite even more for the season premiere of "The Sopranos."

If you like bands with female leads, you'd probably like Nightwish. I son't want to compare them to Evanescence, but they're a Finnish Gothic Metal band with an awesome female lead who sounds like an opera singer, and some of the worst male vocals I've ever heard.

Mew is good, too. They're from Switzerland, and I can't really find the words to describe them.

I saw a woman named Sarah Lentz perform at my school. She has a website somewhere, and she's pretty good.

I'm not very good at describing music, but maybe you'll like this music that nobody else that I know listens to.

This will get added at the end of each post you make, below an horizontal line. This should preferably be kept to a small enough size.

Also a band with a female led whom I just heard about pretty recently, and I found the songs pretty catchy.

Oh, if you click on that link, make sure your volume isn't turned up too loud if you're at work or something. You're going to get a Flash intro and one of their songs playing above it.

Another band that I've really been into lately isn't unsigned, but I don't think they get much promotion, so I'll give them a little plug here: The Rapture. Their CD, Echoes, was probably my favorite of 2003. http://www.therapturemusic.com/

(edited by Dagent913 on 27.2.04 1755)"Moistening your dreams with man-urine."

Really, its only because my friend is the drummer, but they're not that bad. I haven't heard them play in awhile though.

In the context of baseball, the use of drugs hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, the use of alcohol hurts only the player. In the context of baseball, womanizing hurts whom? Maybe the wife of the player? In the context of baseball, felonies are crimes against society, not against baseball. In the context of baseball, gambling is the only crime against baseball.

Gambling, in the context of baseball, is a capital offense and Rose has richly earned-- hell, he agreed to-- his death sentence. Let him hang.

Bob Kohm, co-owner of Rotojunkies.com (rotojunkies.com) , and a large market kind of guy.

Edson (edson.nu) - Just glorious Swedish power-pop music. For anyone who likes literate music made in a gorgeous way.

Brenda Weiler (brendaweiler.com) - This woman writes wrenching lyrics and has an amazing voice. I know a lot of folks feel burned on the girl and a guitar thing these days, but this is wonderful emotional music.

I second the Godspeed mention, and their side project Silver Mt. Zion. This is the most awe-inspiring live act on the planet. They are just monstrously powerful in concert and on album.

Head of Femur (headoffemur.com) - Just saw them live recently and they were a trip. An 11 or 12 or however many are around that day group that plays a mix of damn near everything on the planet. A real sonic stew with a sense of total fun.

The Polyphonic Spree (polyphonicspree.com) - 27 people at least in the band! All in white robes! Choral music for the new millenium! Their music is like if a million candy hearts exploded all over you. Do not resist them!

(edited by spf2119 on 27.2.04 1715)Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it. Proverbs 23:4

There was a really good band down here in the Raleigh area called Rhetoric. I don't think they're still together anymore, but they had three or four different songs that I thought could have been hits (or at least gotten some national play). The lyrics and rythms were awesome. A lot of times, gravelly-voiced lead singers don't work. However, this was a rare case where it just fit.